Last year I was enjoying a few drinks with friends in Soho when my buddy Ron introduced me to Scott Harrison. When I met Scott he had his Mac in hand and was working the bar with a slide show from his recent trip to West Africa where he was the photographer on a "Mercy Ship". If it were not for Scott and people like him, I probably could not have gotten through the grind to launch Changents. I will share with you what Scott told me that afternoon in Soho -- an afternoon that opened the door to create this platform for Change Agents.

Scott told me that he had been living the “good life”. You see, he's a young, smart, good-looking, quirky (in a charismatic sort of way) guy who had it all... hot career as a nightclub & fashion promoter + solid photography talent + phat loft + chicks. Textbook Manhattan success. Well, not for Scott. As you'll read in his blog, he suddenly found himself miserable.

Unlike most of us who white-knuckle ourselves to stability, Scott quit his job, dropped out of the party scene and went to West Africa as a volunteer photojournalist onboard a floating hospital, a Mercy Ship. (Top doctors from across the world work on Mercy Ships – they offer free surgery to the world’s poorest.) As the ship journalist in Liberia – a country with no running water – Scott snapped 70,000+ photos that document people’s transformation from suffering to hope. That turned his life around and prompted him to launch Charity:. Through this new vehicle, Scott is masterminding hip campaigns to present issues like water and sanitation, hunger, AIDS, and preventable disease in compelling ways to promote higher understanding. Through field research and the use of new technology, charity: produces multimedia exhibitions, events, public service announcements, and grassroots activities. Charity Is: Water has become a chic philanthrophic freight train that is not only demonstrating that lack of clean water is a huge killer in Africa, but solving the problem one well at a time. Scott's galas raise awareness and support for his new friends abroad.

It has been months since I last spoke to Scott when I "threatened" to use Changents to turn the spot light on his amazing work. Check out his site and ping him to get involved. This is a guy who has touched thousands and, yet, seems to have the knack for connecting on a personal level to every individual who wants to get behind him and co-opting the better side in all of us.